Day 36…no….42…ehhh…who’s counting anymore? Not me! Don’t you just love potty training? I sure do not, especially after having brand new carpet installed. I thanked God its a brown color. Seems like potty training this time around is about a gagillion times harder than when I potty trained my first kid, who was potty trained in an all tile house. Thank you military housing. This time around we got stuck with carpet, awesome carpet, but carpet. Do you want to hurry up and potty train your kid? Well its not going to happen. Here is why!

1) They decide when they want to learn. You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT make a kid pee. You can sit them on the toilet but you have NO CONTROL over their bladder.

And

2) All kids are different. My first son hated being wet and learned to aim quick. My second son does not mind being wet.

I will tell you exactly what we are doing wrong. So learn from other parents and our mistakes!

1) Do NOT use Pull-Ups or Easy- Ups. I have nothing against them, only the fact that they are diapers for toddlers. Like I tell my kid, “Only babies were diapers, not big boys.”

2) Be Consistent. We are not at all following through with his potty training. We are good for about 2 days and then the weekend comes and we just want to sleep in. I send him to watch the Disney channel instead of taking him to the bathroom to pee.

3) Take your kid to the toilet after waking up in the morning, after naps and before bedtime. They are more likely to pee at these times for sure. Like is said, we do not.

4) Make a big deal about it. High five them after peeing, reward with stickers and words of encouragement.

5) Do not bribe and reward with candy. We did this and now every time he wants candy, all he has to do is go sit on the toilet and “try” to pee. So, NO CANDY. It got so bad that our 4 year old asks for candy when the 3 yr old sits on the toilet.

6) Offer throughout the day to use the toilet. Out of sight, out of mind…right? When we don’t offer him the toilet he just forgets about it.

7) Do not rush your kid to pee and be patient. They will eventually find it interesting enough and want to give it a try.

Lastly,

8) Buy some AWESOME underwear for them. It will make them feel special and feel like a big kid :)

Also,

Never scold them for their accidents and expect wet and poopy messes. So keep some Lysol or Clorox wipes around.

Remember that you also peed and pooped yourself as toddlers.

At this point, we are now rewarding with stickers, he wears Pull-Ups only to bed and underwear all day long and we offer him the toilet every 30 minutes. We still have a long way to go but in the meantime I will try to not freak out when he has accidents on the new carpet.